


Been Travelling, Oh, So Long

by AndreaLyn



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: M/M, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-01
Updated: 2013-04-01
Packaged: 2017-12-07 04:26:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/744245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AndreaLyn/pseuds/AndreaLyn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The next twenty years of their lives depends on a decision Steve makes one Monday morning when the future literally comes home to roost.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Been Travelling, Oh, So Long

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to [the worldfallsup](http://theworldfallsup.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr for the beta! Title is from "Reminder", by Mumford & Sons.

Danny wakes up to a gun in his face.

Strangely, this is one of the three most common ways to wake up, as far as Danny’s life is concerned. He hates his life for that fact, but it’s there (the other two ways being to the sound of his neighbours cooking breakfast and to the sound of a passing rainstorm). “It’s Monday,” he complains, peeking one eye open to see who’s kidnapping him or trying to kill him now.

Typical Monday mornings, however, do not start with Danny opening his eyes to Steve trying to kill him. “Danno?”

“What the fuck is your problem!” Danny swats the gun out of his face, but Steve – who’s looking rough, Danny has to say that – retrains the gun on his face. “Hey! Hey! No more pointing the gun in my face, what is...what is the matter with you?” he demands, voice scratchy from lack of use. “What the hell, Steve? You look like shit! You said you were going home last night, not going off to age twenty years overnight.”

Steve shifts on his feet, which is a clear ‘I’m not telling you something’ in McGarrett-ese, so, you know, Danny’s got cause to have a beef.

“What?”

“What _what_?” Steve echoes.

“You’re not telling me something,” Danny coaxes. “What?”

The gun falls to the side and Steven takes a closer look at him. “I was supposed to come back with you. Max said it would work given that I was tracing your blood through, but it looks like our wires got crossed. I wonder if that means Danno’s with Steve.”

“Wow,” Danny says, blinking at the mind-boggling _insanity_ of that statement. “Babe, that’s not telling me anything. That is just pure crazy talk right there.”

“Danny, I’m not supposed to be here, I’m supposed to with Danny.”

“Nope,” Danny says, shaking his head. “Nope, nope, nope, not making any sense.”

“I have to go,” Steve-with-the-salt-and-pepper-look rocking says. “Stay here.” And as if he doesn’t trust Danny, he cuffs him to the bedpost, leaving Danny boggling as Steve runs out his front door – yet takes the time to carefully lock it behind him. Danny’s handcuffed to the bed, his partner looks twenty years older for some god-knows-why reason, and he’s run out the door so he can do something.

Fumbling to work his way across the sheets, Danny eventually gets hold of his cell phone with his toes, struggling to get it to his mouth. He dials Chin immediately, Kono next, and explains as best as he can. Explaining is sort of hard when you don’t know what’s going on, so he settles for ‘help’ and ‘emergency’ and knows they’ll get over there ASAP.

Danny only hopes that whatever’s going on doing involve innocent people in the crossfire of Steve going batshit crazy.

When Chin and Kono get to his place, they’re wearing twin expressions like they’ve seen their own share of insane that morning.

“Okay,” Danny sighs. “Lay it on me.”

“We just came from Steve’s...”

* * *

“And all I am saying is that if Max didn’t know how this time travel crap is actually supposed to work, then he shouldn’t have sent us back insisting that he knew what he was doing and blah blah blah it’s a temporal moment that has to happen or the whole future crumbles, but look! Look, it’s crumbling right now! Because I was supposed to show up with _you_ , but your DNA called me here, so instead of being at HQ, I am now here while you lie there naked in bed and, what, thirty-five years old? Yeah, I’d call that an issue.”

“...Danny?”

“Yeah?”

“Why are you yelling at me?” Steve manages to ask, swallowing back the other questions he wants to ask, like ‘why did you appear out of nowhere’, ‘what do you mean, temporal moment’ and ‘you look good for someone in their late fifties’. Sure, that last one isn’t so much a question, but it’s pretty clearly on Steve’s mind.

Danny gestures wildly and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Today’s important.”

“I’m getting that. Why?” He’s got his phone under the sheets of the bed, cautiously texting Chin and Kono to get to his place. There’s strength in numbers.

Danny sighs and shakes his head. “I need to wait for Steve to really explain.”

“Is the world going to end because of something that happens ... or doesn’t ... today?”

Danny lets out a strangled laugh. “Not exactly, but trust me, you’re gonna care if we don’t get today right. This affects you personally.” 

Steve tries not to ask too many questions about what it could be, grateful when Chin and Kono burst through his open door – did he really forget to lock it again? It’s not like he’s that worried, but Danny will have his head – and head upstairs.

“Whoa,” Chin says.

Kono staggers in behind him, blinking when she sees Danny. “You said it,” she agrees. “Danny, you kind of look...”

“Yeah, yeah, time travel,” Danny cuts her off with a hand raised in the air. “Look, if Steve’s not here, the chances are that he’s probably with me from the past, which means he’s probably doing a stupid...”

Chin and Kono, both wearing guilty expressions on their face, catch Danny’s eye.

“What’s he doing?” Danny sighs.

“Our Danny called, said that Steve showed up, put a gun to his face, and then charged out of there,” Kono says. “We were on our way there after we checked in on Steve.” 

Danny nods, waving his hand. “Go! Go, I’ll stay here and wait for the maniac. You might want to bring your Williams back here, seeing as the whole point of us coming back involves him, too. Seriously,” he grumbles. “One asshole criminal gets his way in the past and we have to come back and make sure everything stays the same. I could shoot something, I seriously could.”

Steve gives Chin and Kono a nod of assent. “Go,” he says, still casting a wary eye to this Danny of the future. “Criminals learn how to time travel?”

“It’s not like it’s difficult,” Danny scowls. “Expensive. Hence, the criminal element that occasionally gets its hands on it. The asshole in this case travelled back in time and committed a crime spree that, luckily, past us solved pretty quickly, but you didn’t notice the watch? Or some of the things that didn’t add up? C’mon, Steve, you’ve got a big brain underneath all that pretty,” Danny coaxes. “It was last week for you.”

Steve remembers. He wouldn’t forget, given how it had bugged him. He’d chalked it up to strange coincidences and left it at that. “So? We apprehended the guy? What’s the big deal?”

“The big deal is that it delayed something,” that voice sounds suspiciously like his own and Steve turns his gaze sharply to the intruder, looking at a mirrored image of himself, if that image had been aged twenty years. “A week ago, yesterday, you and Danny were supposed to go out to the mountains for a hiking trip to make up for the one that got ruined,” his future self explains. “It rains. Danny slips in the mud and you have to haul him back up, ruining one of his favorite shirts in the process,” he continues fondly, while Danny scowls in the background. “And he gets so angry with you, he gets so pissed, that he rants.”

Steve isn’t sure where this is going because this sounds like a typical Tuesday, as far as he’s concerned. 

“I don’t get it,” Steve says.

“See?” Danny mutters, and Steve tries not to pay too much attention to the way Danny looks at his Steve; like Steve’s hung the moon. The crow’s feet around his eyes speak of a man who has a lot of love and laughter in his life and the care with which Danny tracks Steve (both of them) is fond and worried. “You’re dense, no matter what time zone we’re in.”

“Danny kept ranting and ranting until he got so pissed that he slipped up and admitted that he’s a little in love with you. Us,” the future version of himself says. “That was supposed to happen a week ago and it didn’t.”

“You time-travelled back twenty years to facilitate a hook-up?” Steve echoes, in sheer disbelief. “Are you kidding me?”

He’s not sure the merit of having a staring contest with yourself, but Steve is knee-deep in trying to outglare a future version of himself that’s had twenty years to practice.

“Oh my god,” Danny interrupts. “I feel like you’re about to make out with each other. _Stop_. No, Steven, it’s not a goddamn hookup. It’s a steady partnership both in and outside of work and it’s twenty years strong, so _yeah_ , it’s kind of important to me that we come back and make sure it happens.”

“I don’t...” Steve trails off. “I’m dating Catherine.”

“You were, back then, too,” Danny promises. “After I sort of let everything loose, we sat down and talked about things like normal people...as normal as we get...and you decided to see where things went with her. You broke it off a month later, which was mostly her to be honest, and then you took me out on a real date. I mean, a real one, not the fake little dates you were shuttling me off on secretly to see if I noticed. Deep sea fishing...” he mutters, trailing off. 

Steve rolls his eyes – in tandem with his other self, even – and doesn’t point out that Danny was plenty happy to join him out there.

“Boss?” Kono’s voice drifts upstairs. “We’ve got Danny here. Do you want us to wait downstairs?”

“So, what?” Steve prompts. “What happens here? You come back in time and set up a date? I don’t understand.”

“We make you aware of what was supposed to happen,” Danny clarifies. “And...okay, yeah, we didn’t think past that,” he admits to Steve. “I’m not sticking around to watch and see if past-me makes out with you. I mean, I know we made that tape the once, but I have no intention of seeing that kind of thing live.”

Steve kind of feels like his brain might be breaking. Maybe this is what Danny’s always complaining about happening. 

He shakes his head and tries to reclaim some kind of sanity. “It’s that important?”

“It is to me,” Danny says. “And yeah, I kind of hope it will be to you, one day. We can’t force it, we can only...we can only suggest you try. And god, Steven, I really hope you do,” he begs, the desperation in those blue eyes enough to make any man crumble and Steve’s always been weak when it comes to Danny. “You’re a lunkhead and sometimes I want to strangle you, but I never stop loving you. I didn’t think I’d get that kind of second chance...”

Steve watches as his future self wraps his arm around Danny’s shoulders and turns him towards him, angling him in so he can brush a kiss against his temple, whispering something unknown in his ear.

Danny scoffs and pulls away. “Yeah,” he murmurs in reply. “So, yeah, I’m hoping that I still get that. So, you know, I’m downstairs and I’ve got a hell of a lot less grey hair down there,” he jokes. “You’ve got time to make this choice, just...don’t linger too long. Life’s a bitch when you’re living it with regrets.”

His other self is checking his watch, tapping a few buttons on it. “Max is taking us back,” Steve says. “We should get clear of these two so there’s no DNA interference when he locks onto us.” He casts a look across the bedroom to where Steve is still in bed, like he’s lazing away and not being asked to look at his life and re-evaluate everything about the romantic side. “Good luck.”

“You can’t give me any hints about what I should do?”

“That’s interfering,” the other says. “And besides, you already know. You listen to your instincts the rest of the time, McGarrett. Shut your brain off and focus on your heart.”

“C’mon, Navy,” Danny coaxes. “I don’t need to hear Max bitching. Let’s get out of here.”

Steve gets one last glimpse of the future as Danny reaches out for Steve’s hand, hooking his index finger around Steve’s pinky and tugs, the personal space non-existent between the two of them. There’s a quiet intimacy that Steve doesn’t recall having at any point in his life. He’s been with people, he’s been close, but the level of security and safety and _heat_ between himself and Danny is overwhelming to the point that Steve feels bowled over by this small moment he’s become voyeur to. 

He breathes and it’s shaky as hell. 

They’re out the door before Steve gets a hold of himself, distantly hearing Danny shouting about rights and guns in his face and idiots at the crack at dawn.

Steve reaches across the bed to hook his back t-shirt with two fingers, tugging it over his head. He’s decent by the time he makes his way downstairs, hesitating on the second to last step when he realizes he’s about to see Danny. 

It’s strange, because he sees Danny all the time. This shouldn’t be a day any different than the others, but he’s feeling out of place (and time, apparently). He takes the last two steps, making more noise than he usually would to warn Danny that he’s coming.

“Oh, good, look, it’s present-Steve,” Danny greets.

“Chin, Kono, can you give us a second?” 

“Sure, boss,” Kono agrees, giving him a wary look. “We saw the other two go, is everything okay?”

Steve takes a moment to look at Danny -- _really_ look at him – and weigh the past, the present, and the supposed future. He knows that Danny’s a part of his life that seems larger than life and immovable; like he’ll never drift too far because he’s _Danny Williams_. He’s there for Steve. The question is, what happens if Steve opens up his heart and gives the notion that they could have so much more a chance?

“What was all that about, huh?” Danny demands. “Am I gonna get an answer or is this one of those things you’re going to veil in secrecy and Seal Team Shadows?” 

Steve grins easily, like he always does with Danny.

Things will change if he decides to pursue this path. He’s risking a friendship with a woman he does love, but he’s opening himself up to the possibility of so much more. “How about we go hiking?” Steve suggests, closing the distance between them to look down at Danny. “And I’ll tell you all about it.”

“I hate hiking.”

“Yeah, Danno,” Steve says with a fond smile. “I know you do.”

Since when has Steve ever been a coward, afraid of taking a risk? If he’s going to do something, he’s going to burst both doors down and give no moment of hesitation or delay. He knows one thing above all others, the one thing that’s made up his mind (and has been there in his heart): he knows Danny Williams. 

And he knows a good thing when he sees it.


End file.
